No. 1 Missouri speed trap under attack

The state senate is taking dead aim at a small town known as Missouri’s worst speed trap.

The senate has passed a revision of the Mack’s Creek law, the law that broke the small town near the Lake of the Ozarks that lived on traffic fines. The new target is Foristell, a little town on Interstate 70 divided by the St. Charles-Warren County line. Senator John Griesheimer of Washington calls it “worse than an embarrassment to the state” and says it gives a black eye to every small town in the state.

“Just trying to do my part for good government,” says Griesheimer, who admits he’s had the community in his sights since his brother was stopped while driving a truck through the town a decade ago. Griesheimer says Foristell’s police hassled his brother.

Griesheimer’s hometown newspaper, the Washington Missourian, notes that the town of 350 has seven fulltime policemen and eight reserve officers, plus a police chief…..who wrote 32-hundred tickets in 2006, generating 285-thousand dollars revenue for the city. The National Motorists Association says Foristell is Missouri’s number one speed trap. Its city manager has told the Missourian that the city stands by what the police officers do.

The bill headed to the House say Foristell cannot generate more than 35 percent of the community’s income through traffic tickets. Some lawmakers hope the House changes the law to make it apply to all small towns in Missouri.